In The End, We're All The Same, But We're All Very Different

Until yesterday, I had never seen a "little person" as a child. I had only seen mature adults with dwarfism. Even though there are about 200 distinct types of dwarfism, there is one type that is far more common than the others, where the body is almost full, normal size, but the limbs are affected.

Yesterday, while strolling through the Botanical Gardens, I saw one of the many classroom / school bus tours walking through the Gardens. This group of youngsters was about 8 - 10 yrs old. I had stepped off into the grass to let the group pass me before stepping back up on the sidewalk to continue on about my way, but one young man - the "little person" young man - was walking in the grass along beside his classroom. He was looking down at the ground instead of looking up, watching where he was walking.
Just when he was about to bump in into me, I stepped up on the sidewalk to let him pass me.


(I was wearing full "Michael" garb, as you see in my profile pics.)
When this lil man saw me, he scrunched up his nose at me.
I turned my head in his direction, and I returned the favor: I scrunched up my nose at him!

Then, he did it again. By this time, he had completely stopped walking, and he stopped, turned around and was facing me. He looked at me and he scrunched his nose up at me again (with disapproval at my look). I did the same thing once again to him.

Suddenly, I could see a light click on inside his head and a huge smile spread across his face! I returned in kind, smiling back at him. Even though his classroom was some distance ahead, he ran up to me and gave me a high-five and said, "Thank you, Sir!". I told him, "You're welcome, my good man!" Then, he turned and ran his as fast as his lil feet could carry him to catch up with his class. I failed to mention that his teacher was standing beside me the entire time. As he ran away from me, she whispered to me, "I think Randall learned something new today! He learned that he couldn't judge somebody that was different from him when he is different from everybody else, too!"

- Michael